Kettlebell sport is a power endurance sport. As such developing your strength endurance or local muscular endurance should in turn improve your kettlebell sport performance. Traditionally, this has been done with various approaches, typically all involving higher reps. In this blog, we will look at traditional approaches. In part two we will look at whether this is the best approach for you.
For most amateur lifters at level of Rank 1 or below (for example), less intense methods are more effective and less fatiguing, allowing lifters to focus more on developing technique and fitness with the competition lifts. This will be described in detail in a second article.
To provide some context for the rationale behind selecting different training methodologies, we will briefly cover three methods of increasing strength outlined in the ‘Science and Practice of Strength Training’. These are commonly used in powerlifting and referred to as ‘maximal effort’, ‘dynamic effort’ and ‘repeated effort’.
- Maximal effort is the classic method of building strength typically lifting a maximal load above 80% of 1 RM. Training with heavy loads requires all the muscle fibres to work together simultaneously and is referred to as motor unit synchronization.
- Dynamic effort also promotes motor unit synchronization, however, it uses a sub-maximal load and it’s lifted as quickly as possible (maximal intention).
- The repeated effort involves sub-maximal load and sub-maximal intention, the majority of the methods outlined below focus on this repeated effort method as a means of developing strength endurance.
When you perform a repeated effort to train all the fibres you need to go to failure. Simply, during the concentric or positive phase of the exercise, muscle (motor unit) recruitment starts with slow twitch fibres and as they become fatigued, they switch off letting the fast twitch fibres start to work.
The analogy would be if you’re doing a tug of war one person in the team works when they get fatigued the next person takes over until everyone is fatigued.
In contrast, in synchronization of muscles (motor units) the whole team works as one pulling together. When you add relaxation periods such as pausing at the top of the squat, this moment of relaxation can help to prolong performance and during high repetitions rotation of muscle fibre (motor units).
Again using the tug of war analogy, if someone (a muscle fibre) was to get fatigued they would rest, other fibers would take over, and then they will come back on and let the other person who took over rest to prolong performance. If a sub-max power output was required this could be an advantageous strategy.
Traditional approaches
Below I will outline a few approaches from respected world champions. The examples I give below should be viewed as tools to be used when appropriate. It’s important to point out that they are not limited to only using these approaches, however, these are some of the approaches that they’re known for.
It’s worth pointing out that they would also use specific exercises for example Valery Fedorenko would heavily use one-arm jerks and swings for his biathlon preparation.
Valery Fedorenko & Sergey Merkulin
Barbell Rhythm squats sometimes called jump squats have successfully been used by biathlon and long cycle world champions. Both Valery Fedorenko & Sergey Merkulin would use them to develop lower body muscular tendonous strength.
Here is a video Sergey Merkulin teaching this type of squat and doing a set:
80 kg x 200 reps
I first came across the rhythm squat sometimes called Romanian rhythmic squats when I was focusing on improving my vertical jump and sprinting speed. They’re designed to emphasize a stretch-shortening cycle and develop elastic and tendon strength.
I believe they were invented by now American formerly Romanian strength & conditioning coach István Javorek. He is also known for Javorek barbell complexes. Valery Fedorenko told me to start with an empty bar and do 100 reps add weight as you progress trying to maintain those amount of reps.
Rhythm squats are typically prescribed for 50 to 200 reps with a similar range of motion that mimics the second dip position of the jerk. The speed of the lift will emphasize the stretch-shortening cycle making it highly specific to the jerk and the high reps would use similar energy systems. Further, it would involve rapid contraction and relaxation cycles. This exercise is highly specific and may offer lifters an alternative way to get specific conditioning, alternatively, it may be useful for peaking the specific qualities outlined above.
Bonus’ here is a 30-minute video of Valery Fedorenko going into detail about his assistance exercises: (at 22 minutes in he talks about ½ squats and jump squats). He states that a jump squat is about developing the breaking strength to help with the recovery of the second dip.
Ivan Denisov & Ksenia Dedyukhina
Ivan seemed to you a modified form of complex training. Here are two examples of the complex training that he used:
Complex training 1
Slow heavy squats (lower reps) + alternating box jump (higher reps)
In this video, Ksenia Dedyukhina a highly successful athlete coached by him performs the the alternating box jump
Complex training 2
In this video, the man himself combines the jerk with two types of squat
Complex training typically involves a lighter and heavier movement. The idea is that the heavier movement ‘potentiates’ or allows you get more out of the lighter movement most commonly performed with squats and plyometrics.
- It’s a great method for simultaneously developing strength and speed by challenging different ends of the force-velocity curve.
- The higher repetition variation will make it more specific, but reduce the maximal speed and strength element.
- I like this approach because it combines the maximal effort approach with the repeated effort ( the first part of the set might be considered dynamic effort).
Bonus: He would also use behind-the-back barbell finger/wrist curls for grip training. Here is demoing this exercise and plate farmers carry:
Denis Vasilev & Sergey Rachinskiy
In recent years Denis Vasilev’s method has become particularly popular as an effective way to improve your leg endurance. Sergey used to coach Denis so they have some very similar methodology.
If you haven’t heard of Sergey Rachinskiy he held the Guinness Book World Record for most weight squatted in an hour (80 kg x 520 reps) and most consecutive reps squatting 100 kg (212 reps)! (see videos below).
This seems like the Zenith of this training approach. He is known for his incredibly tough mentality and this training methodology is certainly in line with that. This type of training is highly specific and very gruelling!
Squat 100 kg x 212 reps
The hour set – most volume 80 kg x 520 reps in 60 minutes
Typically squats are performed for five minutes consecutively at approximately 20 reps per minute. This type of approach could focus on developing endurance with only a slight emphasis on strength. I’ve also seen Denis perform bench push-ups and dips for five minutes I’m not sure if Sergey would also do this.
Bench press 100 reps in 5 minutes
Lastly, both are known for performing another variation of the kettlebell jump squat where they leave the ground. This is a higher power variation, which is shorter in duration and further increases the movement specificity from the standpoint of the stretch-shortening cycle and movement velocity.
Kettlebell Jumps squats
The approaches are very specific from the standpoint of energy system development, as you get closer to the competition you can switch from a five-minute squat set to a jump squat set to improve the movement specificity and peak power endurance.
Here is a playlist of Denis’s GPP/SPP training:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLl7h9mfAm6fShaKn6mdm_4KnR0_tXsMpQ&si=e_5bVaF8r9Zr7gFA
Sergey Rudnev
Sergey previously was a gymnast and you can see he uses elements of this approach in his own training. When training his clients he would typically scale exercises to their level.
He focused primarily on circuit training and also uses five-minute sets. A common method that he used was a deficit pyramid squat typically at 20 RPM. With his gymnastics background, he’s known for doing impressive feats of body weight strength and flexibility. Particularly for more advanced lifters he seems to utilize the pistol here is a video of him performing 200 reps, switching every 20 reps in under 10 minutes (this is a very fast pace!).
Anton Anasenko
Although I did my level one IUKL course with Anton I couldn’t find my notes on GPP stuff, from memory, he seemed to favour lower rep sets of 20-ish reps and circuit training for general preparation. Here is a video of one of his circuits. I had to double-check this with Ste who had trained with him for many years so thanks mate!
I have been lucky enough to have met and/or done courses with everyone listed above except Sergey Merkulin. The above workouts need to be considered in the context of the program, as they are prescribed at the end of a session typically. They are just tools that you can utilize in your program if appropriate (i.e. you can recover from this type of training). So bear in mind that if you pick and choose different elements they may be taken out of context.
If I had to choose one approach that I thought was the best overall, I would pick the complex training contrasting the heavy slow work with the repeated/dynamic unilateral jumps. This should allow you to target both ends of the force-velocity curve and hopefully even out left and right imbalances. They all have their place if you can tolerate the growing training load.
In part two, I will cover an approach that may be appropriate for less experienced lifters which should offer a greater bang for buck and a less grueling approach.
Leave a Reply